Butterfly Prophecy
by StEpPiNg StOnEs
Summary: I always thought life was unpredictable. No one knew what the future held and you couldn't count on anyone or anything. Don't know who's going to be important to you or what event is going to define you forever. That was until I received a document outlining my future. I thought that was it for surprises. Then HE came along.
1. Part One- Chapter One: Set in Stone

**Part One: Caterpillar (Academy Days)**

* * *

_Chapter One: Set in Stone_

The night it happened is one I will never forget. Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I still see her standing on my front porch—that strange woman with the sagging skin and the dress that jutted off of her body like a tent. Most vividly I remember those eyes, the most frightening I had ever seen. Containing more colors than I could imagine, they stood in stark contrast to the gray hue of her face.

I had just learned of my acceptance to Konohagakure's Shinobi Academy and had gone out to celebrate the accomplishment with my family. That entailed an elaborate dinner and some acrobatic fireball show at the local theater. Most of the village was dark by the time it let out; our street certainly was, with only one street light lit on the far end of the street. None of us even noticed her presence until Father was unlocking the front door.

"Goodnight," she greeted, her voice penetrating the thick silence. She sounded both as if she were inside of my head and miles away.

"Who are you?" Father demanded. He pushed us all behind him.

The woman laughed. "I'm not here to harm you. I simply need to…" Her eyes fell on me and a slow smile tugged at her thin lips. "…relay a message."

"What is it?"

The woman didn't speak, but lifted her knobbly walking stick. Keys hung from the branches sticking out from the sides and a plain glass orb which sat upon it, nestled in entangled roots. She pointed the stick at Father, Mother, and my little brother Seto then hesitated. The orb went cloudy. She considered it for a moment before muttering, "Interesting…but not why I am here." She then pointed the stick at me. The orb filled with light; a solitary butterfly fluttered its kaleidoscope wings. She smiled again, as if this confirmed what she already knew. Her eyes trained to me, she spoke. "Why don't we go sit inside?"

"You can't just invite yourself into our home!" Mother said. "Whatever it is can be said out here, or you can leave."

I knew that what my mother said made sense, but still my legs led me to the door. I nudged passed my father and jiggled the doorknob open. "It's okay. She's telling the truth," I said to my parents. I couldn't possibly know that was true, but I felt it.

"Cho—"

"It's okay," I repeated. "Please, come in Ms…"

"Ria."

My family filed into the house after the peculiar woman. Mother hurried Seto off to bed while I made tea. I heard no sound from the sitting room and chose to assume Father was only watching Ria and hadn't offed her yet.

I placed the teapot on the table and handed a teacup to Ria and my parents. Ria happily filled her cup and sipped at it, but she was the only one who would touch it.

"The message?" Father said without moving his lips.

"Ah, yes. Of course." Ria set her teacup on the table and reached into one of her gigantic bell sleeves to procure a stone tablet. With effort, she rose to her feet and approached me. "Hold this. Can you feel its weight?"

The slab was solid marble, about three feet long and two feet wide with a depth of two inches—I definitely felt how heavy it was. But I was ready for it, so I was able to hold it with ease.

"Good." She took the tablet back and replaced it with a small square of parchment. Immediately, my hands dropped and I strained to lift them. The paper weighed the same as the stone tablet.

"What—what is this?" I stuttered.

"On this tablet and on that parchment is written the same message. That version is yours to keep, Shirogane Cho. It is your fate, set in stone at the moment of your birth. We have been waiting to deliver it to you, and finally you are ready." She reached forward and pressed a wrinkled thumb onto my forehead. "There is no changing prophecy. This is your fate. You have been walking its path your whole life, but at last it seems you are nearing its crux…." She withdrew her hand from my face and placed it instead on my shoulder; it felt as if she had stacked a slew of those marble tablets onto me. "Be careful, Caterpillar. The road ahead is dark."

With that she vanished, leaving nothing but the weighty parchment behind. Unable to speak, I turned to my parents hoping they had some sort of explanation. They stared back, two fish with unblinking eyes and gaping mouths.

"…Are you going to read it?" Mother whispered, her voice catching in her throat.

Would I? From all that I ever heard, knowing your future did you no good in the long wrong. Generally it seemed to shorten it. A mere thirteen years old, I wasn't ready for that burden; I wasn't ready to ruin my life. "No," I said firmly. "If my fate is set in stone as she says, then there is nothing reading it can do to change that."

I stared at the parchment. If I looked closely, I could see the script of an unsteady hand seeping through the back. I didn't mean to, but I caught one word: butterfly. My mind immediately flashed back to the image of the long butterfly in the orb, fluttering in that bright light. Was that supposed to be me?

I shook my head, dispelling the image. I placed the parchment on my mother's lap; she didn't react at all to its weight. Instead, she carefully lifted it with one hand and looked at me, curiosity in her brown eyes.

"Hide it," I said. "Please. Somewhere I won't find it."

And then I went to bed, hoping that in the morning I would find that it had all been a dream.

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**a/n** Hello there! Thank you for reading! I'm sorry that Shikamaru doesn't make an appearance in this chapter. He actually doesn't come in until chapter three. Eventually, their romance will be central to this story, but first I need to establish the plot and her character. I hope you stick around :) If you are a returning reader here to see the revised version of this story, I hope you will find that it is much improved. If you are a first time reader, I simply hope you enjoyed!

Thank you again for reading! Feedback is appreciated :)


	2. Chapter Two: The Marks of Destiny

_Chapter Two: The Marks of Destiny_

Every morning for the next week I woke with searing pain in my arms and legs, like someone had run over my skin with a hot iron while I slept. In addition, halfway through the week I started to get giant hives on the sides of my neck which grew larger every day. When I scratched them, they bled and only became itchier. I put medicinal creams on them with the delusional hope that it would have an effect and tied a scarf around my neck (despite the warm summer weather) in an attempt to deter the scratching. As the days progressed, nothing could distract me from the burning sensation on my skin. I messed up so many orders at the restaurant that my parents had to ask me to leave; I was more of a hindrance than a help. I was no more focused for my private lessons.

"No." Genma-sensei easily caught the kunai I threw at him; he didn't even have to look. "You had this _months _ago. Why can't you do it now?"

Genma-sensei didn't understand what an "off day" was. He graduated from the Academy when he was only ten, and he was only a year older than me when he was promoted to Chuunin. Now he was an elite Jounin—one of the Hokage's special guards. It was lucky that my parents' restaurant was his favorite in town, otherwise I never would have gotten him as my sensei.

I dropped down from the tree where I had been hiding and yanked at the scarf around my neck. Just like my face, it was soaked with sweat. The salt made my hives burn, and it took everything I had not to dig my nails into them.

"Sorry, Genma-sensei." I bowed deeply to him and didn't straighten until I sensed him looming over me. He considered me for a few minutes, saying nothing but chewing on his senbon.

"If you continue to perform like this, won't graduate from the Academy this year." He paused to move the senbon around his mouth. I felt sweat beading up on my brow. Genma-sensei never lost his calm, which made him even scarier to me. Sometimes I imagined him in combat—a complete professional, completely void of emotion and so all the more ruthless. It gave me chills. Now I could see the disappointment in his eyes, and it was even more petrifying. "A week ago, I would have said you were ready to be a Genin now."

Those words both filled me with joy and crushed me with despair. I had to get this situation resolved so I could prove to Genma-sensei that I _was_ read to be a Genin. "I'm sorry, Sensei. I haven't been able to concentrate because—"

"A shinobi must be able to concentrate under the most strenuous conditions. It is life or death out there. Whatever is distracting you has to be able to be pushed aside, or else you compromise the mission."

"I know. It's just—" I removed the scarf. "For the past week I have had constant discomfort. Maybe you will know what I can do about it. See?" I indicated the sides of my neck, each featuring a hive about the size of a ryo coin. He glanced at the hives but his eyes caught on my arms. His hand shot out and grabbed my wrist, roughly turning my arm so the inside faced up.

"What happened?" he demanded.

At first, I didn't know what he was talking about. My arms had been burning, but I hadn't noticed any visual evidence of there being something wrong. When I looked down, I noticed my palms and forearms were bright red and delicate, as if several layers of my skin had been rubbed off. Leathery brown blisters wound around my arms; I had to choke back the urge to vomit. But I was curious: had the same thing happened to my legs. I knelt down and removed my sandals and ankle weights. Just as I feared, the tops of my feet and my ankles had gotten blisters, though they had been successfully squashed, leaving behind their unwanted remnants.

"What. Happened?" Genma-sensei repeated.

"I—I don't know! For the past week I have had all of this and…"

"Has anything strange happened recently?"

"No. Well…yes. This woman came to my house a week ago. I don't know her. I've never seen her before in my life. But she gave me some sort of prophecy." Sensei's eyes narrowed. Afraid he thought I was leaving out information, I added, "I didn't read it! I have no idea what it says, really."

He frowned. "If this has something to do with a prophecy, I don't think there is anything medicine can do. But we can give it a try. Come on, we're done for the day."

Genma-san had been my sensei for nearly three years, but I had never been to his house before, though he had been to mine. It had always seemed off limits—like a breach of our relationship. That's why I was surprised when he led me to his apartment. It was an innocuous building in downtown. His room was small, clean, and barely lived in. Blank walls, bland furniture…it could have belonged to anyone. I felt something deflate inside of me; I guess part of me had thought that his apartment would be some mystical shrine to his personal life, and if I ever saw it I would really know him.

"Take a seat," Genma-sensei said, gesturing towards the couch. I perched on the edge of my seat while he disappeared into the bathroom, scrounging up medical supplies. I scanned the room, hoping to find _something _unquestionably his. No books laying about, no decorations on the wall, no photogra—

And there it was: a photograph, framed and sitting on the windowsill.

I quickly looked towards the bathroom to see if he was still gathering supplies in there. Even though he had brought me here, I still felt like I was trespassing. But he was my sensei. He had been in my life for so long, yet he was still such a mystery to me. I just wanted to know him a little better. So I picked up the picture frame.

First I noticed an unfamiliar man: tan skin, dark hair, and a chin strap beard. A lit cigarette was in his mouth, but he was half smiling. In the middle was a young woman I had never seen, either. Her auburn hair was in a bun on top of her head and her silver eyes glistened with the biggest smile as she stared directly at the camera. Her arms were thrown around the two men on either side of her as she pulled them close to her. Genma-sensei stood on the left, but I almost didn't recognize him. The senbon was missing from his mouth and he was smiling—_really smiling_, not smirking like I had seen him do so often before—as he looked at the woman through his peripherals. I was so entranced by the photo that I didn't notice Genma-sensei return from the bathroom. Silently, he removed the frame from my hands and placed it back on the window sill.

"Take a seat," he said. "Let's dress up these wounds."

"I didn't know you had medical training," I said as I backed up to the couch. I glanced at his face and bit my lip; was he upset with me? It was impossible to tell, his face was as passive as ever.

"Well I'm certainly no medical nin, but I think I can bandage someone." He smirked. "Every shinobi receives a certain level of medical training. I'm not one to teach it, though. You'll get that at the Academy." He opened a jar of aloe. "Arm." I thrust my arm out and he began to spread the gel on my blisters. I exhaled in relief at how cold it felt. "Speaking of the Academy, you start tomorrow."

"Yeah." I watched as he wrapped my first arm with cotton gauze. He ripped the strip from the roll with his teeth. "I'm sort of nervous," I confessed.

He cocked an eyebrow. I wasn't sure if it was from the unexpected turn of the conversation (he and I were not prone to heart-to-hearts) or from a lack of understanding where I was coming from.

"I won't know anyone. This class…they have all been together for so many years, and I'm just starting there."

"Well you can have all the private training in the world, but you can never become a Genin without graduating from the Academy. You'll just have to suck it up. Arm."

"No, I know that," I said, thrusting my second arm towards him. "I just think I should have gone sooner. Or that my parents should have let me. Not that I haven't loved having you as a sensei." I smiled down at him, but he didn't look up. "I just think that no matter what team I end up on, I am going to be the odd man out."

"It isn't about making friends. You just have to be able to work together." He ripped off the gauze and tied it up. "Take off your sandals….And the weights."

"That picture…" I began tentatively. I noticed his arms stiffen and he almost dropped the jar of aloe. I decided against completing the question, but he glanced up at me expectantly. "Was that your team?"

"My team?" He chuckled. "No. Those are just…friends….I met them at the Academy."

"Were you friends with your team?"

"Might Guy and Ebisu? No, not really. But we respected each other and we worked well together, and that was what was important. I had my friends elsewhere, and that was fine." He tied off the gauze and released my legs. "And you'll be fine, too."

"I just have to stay focused. Remember why I am there."

"That's what I've always taught you. Here, put some on your neck." Sensei handed me the aloe then walked off to the kitchen. I did as he instructed and reflected on what he said. I was going to the Academy so I could be a Genin, and then that would be my life. I looked around his empty apartment again. He didn't have time to be anything other than a shinobi. All he had was a photo of a couple friends…friends who weren't his team, but were from the Academy nonetheless. I had a few friends of my own in Konoha….well, only one really remaining. Emi. I had met her when I moved to Konohagakure years ago, and she initiated me into her group of friends. But as my training progressed, they slowly fell away. So now it was just Emi.

_The shinobi life is all encompassing…how long until I lose her, too? I need to make friends there. I can't go through this life alone with no one who understands._

"Here. Have some tea," Genma-sensei said, carefully handing me a teacup. He sat down at the other end of the couch. "So earlier you said that a prophecy was brought to you?" I nodded. "And the next morning all of this started?"

"Yes, that is how it happened."

"You think they are connected, don't you?"

"I guess. I don't really know what to think. I don't know anything about prophecies…I haven't really heard of any before. And I don't know the specifics of this one. I don't want to know."

"I understand. Knowing the future could be a burden. I would probably make the same decision. But I'm afraid in this case that reading it might be the only way to make this go away. They do seem intertwined…I don't think that prophecies are usually hand delivered to their subjects. They are usually background entities that the subject lives without knowledge of. When a prophecy is given to you though…" He shook his head and took a swig of tea. "Maybe you need to know."

"I don't…"

"Maybe I'm wrong. Tell me what this woman said."

I gripped the sides of my tea cup as I recalled that night. "Not much. She said that it was my fate set in stone at my birth. They had been waiting to give it to me, and now I'm ready? She…I think she touched my forehead then and said there was no escaping."

Genma-sensei set his teacup aside and replaced the senbon in his mouth. "She touched your forehead? Sounds like she was stamping you as some sort of…confirmation of delivery. She didn't stick around to see you read it, so I think that somehow that stamp has caused this as a precaution to stir you into reading it if you didn't do it on your own." He shrugged then and shook his head. "That's what I think, anyway."

"Won't knowing change me though? Won't it get in the way?"

He shrugged again. "It could. But what is the alternative? You can't go on like this—you can barely concentrate, and it is just going to get worse. You'll never become a Genin. But it's your choice. Your future may be predestined, but you get to decide on this." He must have seen the panic set into my face, because he released a small chuckle. "It won't be the only decision you get to make. Prophecies…they have more wiggle room than you would think."

I swallowed the last of my tea and just sat there, giving myself time to process everything he had said. "How do you know so much about this?"

"It's just an area of interest. I do some reading here and there in my spare time." He looked out the window and stood. "It's getting late. You should be heading home. Let me take that." He took the tea cup from my hands. I busied myself with putting my weights and sandals back on while he took the dishes to the kitchen. I took another look at the photograph with my smiling sensei and his friends then glanced back towards the kitchen. Somehow, in this empty apartment, I found parts of my sensei I hadn't known existed before. I had always respected him and cared for him, but knowing him deepened both these feelings.

Genma-sensei met me at the door and held it open for me. "Starting tomorrow, I won't be your sensei anymore."

I hadn't thought of that before, but it made sense. I would be under someone else's tutelage, so I wouldn't need him anymore. I had grown so used to working with him, I guess I had hoped that he could somehow be my sensei forever. At that moment, when I felt so sad to let him go, I felt the seed of a new hope take root: that he would be in charge of my team when I graduated. Realistically, I knew that couldn't happen. As a Tokubetsu Jounin and an elite bodyguard for the Hokage, he was neither qualified nor available to be in charge of a team. A team instructor needed well-rounded training to pass onto his subordinates, but his was more specialized. He was only able to train me in his spare time and out of the goodness of his heart. But I still hoped. I didn't let on to any of this, though. Instead I smiled small-ly and said, "I know."

"You'll be in good hands. Iruka is a good man and a good shinobi." Genma-sensei paused, shifting the senbon around his mouth. He was notably uncomfortable, clearly unfamiliar with the situation he and I were in together. "But if you need anything….well, now you know where to find me."

"Arigato, Genma-sensei!" I beamed, bowing to him.

"Heh." He gave my shoulder a pat and then quickly withdrew. "Get home now."

My parents were still at the restaurant when I got home, and Seto was nowhere to be found either. I set about preparing dinner for myself, taking my time. I knew Genma-sensei was right: if I wanted the burning and the itching to stop, I was going to have to read that prophecy. There were two problems: One, my mother had hidden it, so I had no clue where it was. Two, I wasn't ready, and so I found myself hoping someone would come home and distract me from the task of finding it.

But the restaurant had late hours, and with my inconsistent schedule, my parents weren't about to send Seto home without any confirmation that I was there to take care of him. I finished making dinner, ate it, and cleaned up without any interruption from my family. All that was left to do then was find the prophecy.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," I mumbled. I had been so bound and determined not to have anything to do with it when Ria handed it to me, and now I was on a mission to find it. My resolve had barely lasted a week. "Where would she have put it….?" I had explicitly stated to hide it somewhere I would never find it. For all I knew, it wasn't even in the house anymore. And unless Mom had some hidden compartment somewhere in the house, there wasn't really any place I would _never _look.

Was there?

Where in the house did I never venture? I could only think of one room that almost fit that bill: my parents' bedroom. I stopped outside the door and peeked through the crack even though I knew no one would be in there. I forced myself to cross the threshold then surveyed the room, feeling my hopes deflating. Even if looking in this room had been an epiphany, it wasn't enough. I would probably have to tear the room apart. I didn't want to have to look through their dressers, but it seemed to be the most surmountable challenge. Besides the dressers, there were only the bookshelves which lined the walls. That would take forever.

I opened my mother's top drawer then paused….The books, of course! I had told my mother to hide the prophecy somewhere I would never find it. And where would I never, _ever_ look? I slammed the drawer closed and rushed over the bookshelf closest to my parents' bed. They had organized their books first by genre. Closest to their bed were the books which Seto and I were _not _allowed to read: the raunchy novels. I only knew about them because Mother had left one sitting out once by accident and I picked it up.

I shuddered at the memory.

Bracing myself, I took the first novel from the shelf and flipped through it for any extra pages. While I did find some, they appeared to only be bookmarks—not the prophecy. I moved onto the next, and the next, tearing through them as quickly as possible. At last I landed on the infamous novel of my past: _Icha Icha Paradise_. I took a deep breath and flipped through the pages, but when I got to the end I was crestfallen to find that it was empty. Sighing, I went to put it back in its place. My eye caught on a square of white sitting in contrast to the blue book it sat against. I went to grab it but found it was too heavy.

"Gotcha," I whispered. Using both hands, I removed it from the shelf. I heard the door opening down the hall—someone was home. Quickly replacing the book on the shelf, I scrambled to my feet and sprinted down the hall to my bedroom. I closed the door and slid down against it.

"Here goes nothing." I closed my eyes and took three deep breaths to steady myself. Here it was, my future. It felt so heavy. What did that mean? Was it good? Bad? Gravely important? I didn't want to know, but I needed to. The aloe was wearing off. Soon the pain would be unbearable again, and I couldn't go on like that. It would be worse than a life without friends. Before I could talk myself out of it, I opened the parchment.

_A butterfly born in coastal town_

_Will perish in the flame_

_Where the Leaf of most renown_

_First learned to love her name._

_With brightened wings, this butterfly_

_Will penetrate the dark_

_And light and shadow in the sky_

_Forever leave their mark_

_But black lizard will find its prey_

_Both its foe and its friend_

_The decision will come upon this day:_

_To leave, or to defend?_

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**a/n **So if you are a returning reader, this chapter is COMPLETELY different from what it used to be. I really wanted to give Cho roots in the town. Before, I made her friends with people at the Academy, but the friendships were very shallow and didn't really serve a purpose. Or, in the case of her friendship with Naruto, sort of messed up his whole genesis story, so I am reworking her relationships with the people of Konoha. And I really love Genma, so I thought it would be neat to bring him in. Especially since I have a fanfic (which I don't recommend you reading. It needs MAJOR work. I am sort of in the process of fixing it), with him. I like to tie all my stories together.

So still no Shikamaru and no romance, but I am working on establishing the plot in addition to other relationships. Sorry if it is slow :x I'll try to pick up the pace. I would love to hear what you think though!


	3. Chapter Three: The Academy

Chapter Three: The Academy

Genma-sensei was right, of course. When I woke up the next morning, neither my arms nor my legs burned, and my neck didn't itch. The sun streamed in through the windows and I smiled into its beams, languidly stretching out my limbs. In the face of the beautiful morning and my newly returned physical wellness, I could almost forget about the prophecy.

And then it returned. I fell back into my bed and buried my face in my pillow, hiding from those accursed rays of light. The prophecy….I didn't know what it meant, but if I was the butterfly then I was definitely going to die. I knew that would happen eventually, of course, but to have it written before me made it seem a lot harsher and as if it was approaching much more rapidly than I had anticipated.

"Cho-nee-chan!" Seto sang. His feet pounded against my wood floors in quick succession, and I knew what was coming next. Opening one eye, I was able to watch as my seven-year-old brother flew through the air and land on top of me.

"Oomph!" I grunted; knowing what was coming didn't stop the wind from being knocked out of me.

"Nee-chan!" He crawled off of me and curled up at my side. "You need to get up! It's your first day at the Academy today."

I glanced over at my bedside clock. Already seven, and I needed to get to the Academy by eight. With newfound vigor, I threw my blankets off of me and sent Seto toppling off the bed with them. "Thanks, kiddo! I have to get ready!"

I flew into the bathroom and got the water running. The fumes of breakfast cooking in the kitchen came wafting in through the crack under the door. "Mmmm." If I was fast, I might be able to squeeze a quick breakfast in before racing off to school. I couldn't be late on my first day. That would make a terrible impression. I stripped off my clothes and bandages and threw them to the floor. I didn't look to see if the blisters had gone away. Silly me, I thought that the end of the pain meant the end of the markings.

It wasn't until I was halfway through my shower that I saw the new marks on my arms. My bar of soap fell to the tub basin simultaneous to me dropping to a seated position. I don't remember screaming, but the echoes of it bounced around the walls and rang in my ears. Starting on my palms were two thick bands; they split at the wrist and then wound about the length of my forearms, criss-crossing over each other like ribbons. The bands rejoined at the nook of my elbows and tied themselves together, but the bows looked more like butterflies. I ran my finger along the length of one of them and found to my horror that they were not surface markings: they were grooves in my skin—pale white scars that stood in stark contrast my tan complexion. They were beacons, begging for attention from all passerby.

I looked down at my ankles and found similar markings there. At the center of each foot began two bands which quickly parted ways. They wrapped around my ankles twice, culminating with a butterfly bow at the inside ankle bones. They too were grooves. My hands shot to my neck, afraid the scars might have also found their ways there. I heaved a sigh—nothing but smooth skin.

I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to resume my shower, but I was shaking the entire time. I didn't know why these new markings had appeared, but they seemed permanent. And judging by the butterflies which had taken over my body, this had everything to do with the prophecy. Which meant that I really was the butterfly, and my death was predetermined and imminent.

There was a light knock on the door followed by my mother's voice. "Cho? Is everything alright in there?"

I turned off the water. "Yeah, everything is fine. I just….saw a spider in the tub before. I'm getting out now though. Time?"

"Seven twenty."

"Arigato. I'll be right out for breakfast!" _After I find something to cover these marks up with_, I added to myself. I rummaged through the cabinets, hoping we had some gauze or something. We were always annoyingly short on medical supplies, which made no sense since I was a training shinobi. I guess my mom never took that into consideration when she did her shopping though.

Finally I came up with a small roll hidden in the back. Knowing that I had that allowed me to calm down. I toweled off and put on my clothes. My shirt was sunrise orange—my favorite shade. It was sleeveless, had a short turtleneck, and came to just below my ribcage. I had paired it with olive green high-waisted shorts, cuffed at the bottom and with big pockets. I had taken great care in deciding on what my "official shinobi" outfit would be, but now as I wrapped my arms up with fresh bandages I wish I had opted for long sleeves. At least the marks of my legs would be hidden by my sandals.

Next was to do my hair. I frowned at my reflection and pushed my damp locks from my face. Originally I had planned to keep my hair down. That was how I liked it best; I liked the way the light brown and dark blonde strands interplayed with each other and how nicely is hung down my back. But thinking from a realistic standpoint it wouldn't work out in the field. I twisted a section from the left side of my head into a French braid that ran along the left parietal ridge. Then I swept the rest into a high ponytail. The ends tickled the base of my neck. I shook my hair back and forth a few times, smiling to myself. Practical, yet cute.

I don't know what made me notice it. Perhaps my hair swung across the side of my neck while I was watching it, but there my eyes were glued. Where I had felt "nothing but smooth skin" was something else entirely—a marking I certainly had not agreed to have put there. I pulled back my collar to get a better look. Starting at my collarbones and running halfway up my neck were inch-thick arrow tattoos, the same shade of orange as my shirt. And—what else was I expecting—little orange butterflies fluttering about the edges.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered. I ran my fingers along them then inspected the tips—no ink was running off. These were permanent, too. "This has to be some sick joke."

"Cho! Breakfast is getting cold!" my mom hollered.

"Coming!" I shouted back. Gathering my pajamas into my arms, I ran back into my room. The red glow of my alarm clock glared at me. 7:35. I did not have time for breakfast. Another reason to curse Ria and the prophecy.

"I actually don't have time to sit down," I said when I entered the kitchen. "Shower ran a little long. I'll just take some food to go…" I snatched a banana and what remained of the bacon my mom had cooked, threw my bag over my shoulder, and headed out the door. "Bye Seto-chan! Mom, Dad! Have a good day!"

"Oh, bye Cho! Good luck!" Mom called after me. I shut the door, stuffed a piece of bacon in my mouth, and took off at a sprint down the street.

When I arrived at the Academy, the front lawn was empty. A lone swing tied to a tree branch still rocked back and forth, but the air was still. Everyone must have just gone inside. I had been counting on arriving with everyone still outside so I could follow someone to class. I had no idea where anything was.

Standing around outside wasn't going to do me any good. I entered the building; the halls were empty. Cursing to myself, I took off at fast walk down the hallway, looking left and right but never straight.

"Oomph!" I stumbled backwards. Had I hit a wall? I didn't realize I reached the end of the hallway.

"Gah! Watch where you're going, baka."

Unless walls spoke…no, it wasn't a wall. It was a boy about my age. My first thought was that he had terrible posture. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his dark brown capri pants and his shoulders were shlumped forward. Immediately following this observation came a second: he had a pineapple head. His dark hair was long for a boy and pulled to the top of his head, resulting in a spiky ponytail.

He noticed me staring at him and scowled at me, his narrow eyes contracting as he looked at me.

"S-sorry," I stuttered, half out of embarrassment for walking into him, half in an attempt to hold back the snicker threatening to erupt. Now he was an _angry _pineapple.

He didn't say anything else to me, just shook his head and carried on his way. I glanced over my shoulder and watched him disappear through a doorway. Satisfied that he was gone, I finally let myself laugh.

"I'm glad I won't be in _his _class," I said to myself. I was already going in with no friends, I didn't need to have someone who didn't like me on top of that.

At the end of the hallway, I finally found Iruka-sensei's classroom. His name was engraved on a worn metal plate and screwed into the doorway overhead. Convenient, since I had no idea what he looked like. He was young, probably early to mid-twenties, with hair similar to pineapple-head and a big scar across the bridge of his nose. He was already speaking animatedly at the front of the room. By the looks on the students' faces, they didn't share his excitement.

I knocked on the doorframe and slowly crossed the threshold. Iruka-sensei stopped midsentence and turned to look at me. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry I'm late. My name is Shirogane Cho; I was told I would be in your class."

"Oh! Yes, come in. Alright class, we will resume our review on chakra in a couple minutes. We have a new student to welcome. Come here!" He extended his arm towards me, ushering me to join him in the center of the room. "Shikamaru, get back to your seat."

I looked back to the doorway to see who Sensei was talking to. Pineapple Head. Our eyes connected. My lips pulled back into a strained smile, the corners twitching with nerves; he turned his face towards the ceiling and shook his head.

"Alright. If you want to introduce yourself…Just your name and a fact or two."

"Right. My name is Shirogane Cho. My parents own a restaurant in town. You may know it. Mahō no Koi…the seafood place. I help out there. And um…." I looked around the room at the bored faces. They didn't care. But Iruka-sensei watched me with interest, waiting for me to divulge a little bit more about myself. "When I'm not training I like to paint." I looked over at Sensei again, eyes wide and lips sucked in to form a grimacing smile. Good?

He gave a short nod and clapped a few times, as if somehow by giving a few measley facts about myself I had accomplished something. "Alright Cho! There's an empty seat…" He scanned the room for openings; eyes landing on the empty seat next to a boy with spiky yellow hair and an orange jumpsuit, he sighed regretfully, "Next to Naruto."

Naruto sat in the second to last row and appeared to be sleeping on his desk. Behind him sat Pineapple Head and a boy munching on a bag of chips. I tried to avoid Pineapple's gaze as I slid into the empty seat.

"Hey," a voice whispered from behind me. "New girl."

For a moment I filled with dread, but when I turned around Pineapple was sitting with his face in his palm and watching Iruka-sensei with glazed eyes. I turned my attention then to the boy beside him. "Yes?"

"Your parents own Mahō no Koi? That's my favorite seafood place in the village! I eat there all the time."

Now that he mentioned it, he did seem familiar. He came in pretty regularly—though not as often as Genma-sensei—with a large man with wild red hair and purple markings on his face. I remember being awed by the amount of respect the man commanded and asking Genma-sensei if he knew who he was. He was a well respected ninja in town, head of the Akimichi clan. That day Genma-sensei gave me a lesson on some of the important families in Konohagakure. I was particularly fascinated by the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi alliance, spanning generations. They even had a special formation; Genma-san couldn't (or wouldn't) tell me the details of it, but it was called Ino-Shika-Chō. The snacking boy was an Akimichi, definitely. I glanced over at Pineapple; Iruka-sensei had called him "Shikamaru..." Could he be part of the mighty Nara clan? With the distant look on his face and the drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth, he didn't seem like anything special.

"Yeah, I think I've seen you there before," I said, turning my attention back to the Akimichi. "What's your name?"

"Chouji."

"Oh, that's similar to my name. I'm Cho. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too. Chip?" He extended the bag to me.

As I opened my mouth to decline, it had become apparent that Iruka-sensei had caught wind of our side conversation. "Cho!" he barked. "Why don't you tell us about the six different kinds of chakra?"

I stared at Iruka-sensei for a moment in complete silence. Naruto laughed openly at me, probably assuming that I had been stumped.

"Is that supposed to be a trick question? There are eight."

Naruto stopped laughing. I felt twenty seven sets of eyes turn on me. _Great, _ I thought. _Now I look like some sort of know it all. _I felt warmth creeping up my neck, stretching across my face and tickling my ears.

"There is normal chakra, which every living creature naturall produces to some degree or another. Then there are the five elemental chakras—fire, earth, lightning, water, and wind. How much of any of these a shinobi has depends on what type of ninjutsu is used. Most shinobi in this village probably have the highest amount of Fire chakra. There is also Tailed Beast Chakra, which are really powerful living chakras. Lastly there is Senjutsu chakra, which is chakra found in nature and is needed for Senjutsu techniques." I took a deep breath and looked around the room; everyone was still staring at me. "Right?"

"Yes, that's right….we just hadn't, er….covered those last two yet," Iruka said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Next question…what is a good way to build up chakra control in the body? Naruto! Why don't you field this one?"

"Uh….er….Damn it," Naruto said under his breath.

"Chakra absorption techniques," I whispered.

"Nani?"

I repeated myself, and Naruto copied it back to Sensei.

Iruka looked mildly surprised, but didn't verbalize it. "Who wants to explain what that is? Ah, yes, Shino. Go ahead…."

The lesson continued on like that for a while. I listened avidly for the first half, but quickly grew bored by the discussion. I had known chakra on a theoretical level for years—most of it learned before I even adopted Genma-san as my sensei. As soon as my family moved to Konohagakure, I was fascinated with the shinobi culture, and so I devoured every book I could on the subject. I had enough theory—I needed practice.

"Okay, time for lunch! You know the drill—one hour!" Iruka-sensei said; his voice was drowned out by the chattering of the students all trying to get out of the classroom at once. I got swept up into the herd, but Sensei caught sight of me and called me to him.

"I just wanted to talk to you about your application," he said. "I never had the chance to see it, but if you don't mind…It will just help me get to know you better; that way I can be a better teacher for you."

"Oh! Yeah, that's fine. What exactly do you want to know?"

"Well you know the three requirements to get into the Academy: 1. Love the village and hope to maintain peace and prosperity; 2. Be able to endure hard work and training; 3. Be healthy in mind and body. Obviously, you exhibited aptitude in all of these fields, but I need to see what level you're at. Genma-san says you should be about ready to graduate…"

"Genma-san is very kind. I still have a lot to learn."

A smile flickered across his face. "Why did you wait so long to enroll in the Academy?"

"I moved here to Konohagakure when I was seven from the Land of the Moon. I never got a concrete answer as to why…something about opportunities. At the time, I had never considered being a kunoichi. But then I found books about it—chakra, jutsus, history books….It was all really basic stuff, but it all fascinated me. And then it just clicked for me—this was what I was meant to be. My mom wasn't convinced though—she didn't like the idea of me risking my life. She still doesn't. But she allowed me to be trained by Genma-san. It was partly to catch up to the students here, but partly because it was less of a commitment and she was hoping I would change my mind. But I haven't, so she finally gave in."

"Do you ever miss the Land of the Moon?"

My eyebrows knit together in thought. "No," I said after a moment. "Not really. It was beautiful there, and the Hidden Village was beautiful, but this is my home. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else."

Iruka-sensei smiled again, brighter this time. I guess I gave the right answer. "Do you have any health concerns?"

My hand shot to my forearm instinctively. Realizing this looked suspicious, I scratched underneath the bandages a few times. "N-no. All clear!"

He eyed the bandages but didn't say anything. He was probably waiting to see if anything came of it as we progressed through class.

"What are your strengths and weaknesses, do you think?"

I pushed air back and forth between my cheeks then exhaled deeply. "Oh I don't know. Um…I guess I would say my biggest weakness is….weapons combat. But my biggest strength…." I shrugged. Everything could use improvement. I hoped that would come more easily when working with more people. Competition usually worked as a stimulant for me.

"Well is there a particular technique you are more attracted to? That will usually be your strongest."

"Genjutsu!"

"R-really? That isn't really Genin-level…Have you practiced any before?"

"Yeah! Some. Genma-san didn't teach me much; he said it was more important to build my base in taijutsu and ninjutsu first…plus he isn't too keen on genjutsu. I mostly did it on my own."

Iruka-sensei's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He looked stricken, as if I had said something which offended all of his senses. "But….those scrolls aren't publicly accessible. How did you…?"

"Well I read everything I _could _find. Then I begged Genma-san to teach me something. And then I just…I don't know. I figured it out. I don't know if I used any official techniques or not, but I did something."

His eyes grew larger and his jaw slackened. The silence was thick but I didn't dare break it, afraid that I would somehow just make it worse. Finally, Sensei regained his composure. He straightened up, gave his head a slight shake, and blinked at me. "Alright! Well thank you, Cho. This has been very informative. You can go get your lunch now; sorry for keeping you!"

"Arigato, Iruka-sensei." I bowed and left the room. What a peculiar meeting. It made me slightly nervous; Sensei was clearly making judgments about me, somehow gauging my abilities. I wish I at least knew the scale I was being weighed on, but I knew nothing about the other students. For all I knew I paled in comparison to them in the field (though it was clear that I was more proficient than most in the theoretical aspect).

His final reaction though…I hadn't expected news of my genjutsu use to be so outrageous. How had I not realized that it wasn't a common skill for Genins? If that was the case, why did it come so easily to me? But there was something more than surprise to his face…I just couldn't make sense of it.

* * *

a/n Still a little slow moving. Sorry about that! I'm trying to establish Cho as a character on her own first. Last time I wrote this story, she was really bland and definitely a Mary Sue. I am attempting to fix that problem. But please let me know what you think. What's working? What would you like to see more of?

Thanks for reading :)

Chapter Four is currently in the works.


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